Now, Some Pictures from Graduation

Graduation day. It was a lot of fun. The morning started with the administration putting out chests of Champaign for us to drink, then we went to the school-wide ceremony, where Lance Armstrong gave the commencement speech. Then on to the Flecther School graduation, more speeches, and then it was done. So in the picture it is me, Molly on the right, and Molly's first-year roommate in the middle.














Mom, dad, and Pat after a day of sight-seeing, waiting for a beer in downtown Boston before heading to the North End for an Italian dinner.














Molly, with Pat being cool in the background, on the Duck Boat tour of Boston.

My New Job

Hey there everybody that still on occasion checks this thing that is never updated. So Molly and I have moved to the DC area. We are in our place and getting settled as best we can. DC so far has been a lot of fun. We have a bunch of friends from school that are living in the area, so that has been really nice. There also has not been any shortage of things to do. Last weekend we went out for a bike ride on one of the nice trails in the area and met our friend to play disk golf (this site is just a random site I picked, but for those of you that have no idea what it is, this will give you a good idea). Paul and I had started playing on occasion last spring (he has played for years, but just got me interested), and it is nice to know there is a good course just a couple miles from my place.

Today Molly and I went to the Air and Space Museum, which was as cool as I remember, though we only made it through about two- thirds of the museum before I started losing interest. It is nice that it is only a short subway trip away.

Now for the big news that most all of you probably already know, and that is that I am working again. I was hired by Save the Children a month ago, and have been hard at work since August 7. My job title is “Program Development Officer,” and a lot of people have asked me what I actually do. This is difficult to explain concisely to people if they have no experience with US government funding mechanisms for non-profit organizations in development and humanitarian aid work.

Basically, I am part of the management and development team that supports the field offices around the world in pursuing large grants (the minimum I will ever be involved with is $1 million, and the one I just finished with this week was for $3 million). This means providing technical support in making sure things are done right, on time, working with partner organizations to put together joint proposals and stuff like that. As far as development work goes, it is far from the sexiest job. But it is the foundation of this whole field, and the skills I will perfect will be very useful in the future. So there you have it. I am sure that does not clear anything up, but that is the best I am going to do at the moment.